We love accompanying Portland high school students when they go behind-the-scenes at leading employers for real-world career education. Our host employers for Career Days and Class Career Exploration in the first half of 2017 included AWS Elemental, Swift, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Instrument, Upswell, Legacy Health, PCC Swan Island Trades Center, Nike and Metal Toad — whew!

We also teamed up with the folks from Design Week Portland in April to offer a new kind of Career Day with their participating studios.

Here is a sampler of student feedback from these experiences:

“The career day helped boost my confidence in myself,” — Eli Gottsacker, Roosevelt High School, AWS Elemental Career Day

“It showed me that there is a great demand for computer science majors and that you should always be eager to learn as much as possible.” — Spencer Miller, Lincoln High School, AWS Elemental Career Day

“(I learned) that I can have a job in PDX that is creative and different that can involve video and photography and graphic design.” –– Elizabeth Simkovic, Parkrose High School, Swift

“The most important thing I learned today was that teamwork plays a huge role in this career. If you don’t know what to do in a certain situation, your team is there to help.” — Alicia Chan, Roosevelt High School, Kaiser Permanente Career Day

“I really loved the hands-on work! I learned a lot of new things that I didn’t know before so I’m leaving this awesome place with more knowledge!” — Akira Peterson-Geigle, Cleveland High School, Kaiser Permanente Career Day

“I learned about how it’s not just one person coming up with or making (a product). It’s everyone working as a team and communicating.” — Leomar Galeona, Roosevelt High School, Nike Career Visit

“It helped me with gaining confidence and to ‘stay hungry’.” — Caroline Soria, Benson High School, Instrument Career Day

“I learned about many different job opportunities that I never knew existed.” — Ian Frazier, Wilson High School, Instrument Career Day

“I went into the career day expecting to feel like an outsider/discouraged right off the bat, but for the first time I felt like I fit in nicely and was welcomed.” — Aya Boutwell, Wilson High School, Upswell Career Day

“I was surprised how appealing nursing sounded. Before this I didn’t think I would want to go into nursing but now it’s a major option.” — Emily Bascuti, Franklin High School, Legacy Health Career Day